Louk Sorensen Qualifies for Second Round of Australian Open

Louk Sorensen in Second Round of Australian Open

Early this morning Louk Sorensen defeated Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei in the first round of the mens singles at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Sorensen had a 6-4 3-6 6-2 6-1 win over the over the twenty six year old who is currently ranked 101.

Sorensen (ranked 284) will now play American John Isner in the second round on court no. 8 on Wednesday, the third to play after an 11am start.

Louk came through the qualifying singles with a 7-6(6) 6-3 win over Benjamin Balleret of Monaco in the first round, a 6-4 3-6 6-3 win over Michael Yani in the second round and Daniel King-Turner (NZL) on a scoreline 6-4 7-6(3) in the final round of qualifying.

Sorensen’s last event before the Australian Open was at the Chennai Open in India where he achieved a place in the main draw after three great wins in the qualifiers.

The last time that Ireland had a player in a grand slam event was 1985, the year that Louk was born. Interviewed on BBC Sport earlier today, Sorensen said "I’m feeling great, it’s the biggest achievement of my career so far."

Louk’s father, Sean who is the Davis Cup captain for Ireland competed in Wimbledon in 1980 and his older brother Kevin represented Ireland at international level in the Davis Cup.

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Also competing at the Australian Open was Conor Niland, he narrowly missed a place in the main draw in the final round of the qualifiers. He was defeated 6-1 4-6 3-6 by Brazilian Ricardo Hocevar and next week John Morrissey and Sam Barry will compete in the Australian Open Juniors main draw.

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